As a method of forming a fine pattern in a short time in production of optical members, recording media, semiconductor apparatus, etc., a method (a nanoimprint method) has been known of pressing a mold having a pattern reverse of the fine pattern on its surface on a photocurable composition disposed on the surface of a substrate and irradiating the photocurable composition with light to cure the photocurable composition thereby to form a fine pattern on the surface of the substrate (Patent Documents 1 and 2).
However, in this method, since the cured product of the photocurable composition is attached to the mold, it is difficult to separate the cured product and the mold. Accordingly, it is necessary to apply a mold release agent to the surface of the mold. However, it will be difficult to precisely transfer the reverse pattern of the mold due to the thickness of the mold release agent itself, uneven coating of the mold release agent, etc.
As a photocurable composition from which a cured product with fine mold release characteristics can be formed, the following has been proposed.
(1) A photocurable composition comprising a fluorinated monomer, a monomer containing no fluorine, a fluorinated surfactant or a fluoropolymer, and a polymerization initiator (Patent Document 3).
However, a cured product of the photocurable composition (1) contains a fluoromonomer and a fluorinated surfactant or a fluoropolymer and thereby has low mechanical strength. In order to obtain a molded product having a fine pattern in nanometer order, durability with which the pattern shape is maintained is required. Accordingly, a photocurable composition from which a cured product with high mechanical strength can be obtained has been required. Further, in production of semiconductor apparatus also, a resist is required to have high dry etching resistance and in addition, particularly for a fine pattern at the nano level, a photocurable composition from which a cured product with high mechanical strength to maintain the pattern shape can be obtained has been required.    Patent Document 1: U.S. Pat. No. 6,696,220    Patent Document 2: JP-A-2004-071934    Patent Document 3: WO2006/114958